#Linguistic Intelligence Development

[tetouanpro]

Children’s Activity Books: A Window to Creativity and Fun Learning

In today’s fast-paced tech world, parents and teachers are constantly searching for new ways to engage children and develop their skills in fun and educational ways. Here, children's activity books play a pivotal role, combining entertainment with education, and opening doors to creativity and discovery for young minds.

Why Are Activity Books Essential for Children?

Activity books are not just pages filled with games and challenges; they’re educational tools that contribute to children’s development in a comprehensive way. Through colorful exercises, coloring games, and mini-stories, children can improve their fine motor skills, develop linguistic intelligence, and hone critical thinking.

Varied Types to Inspire Children’s Imagination

Activity books come in a variety of topics and formats, allowing each child to choose what excites their curiosity. For example, coloring books featuring cute animal characters help children express their imagination and add their personal touch. On the other hand, activity books with short stories and interactive questions encourage children to think and analyze in new and exciting ways.

Fun Challenges and Endless Learning

Children’s activity books often contain simple challenges, such as timed coloring pages or finding hidden objects. These challenges are not just games but instill perseverance and commitment to completing tasks on time. They also help children improve their focus and attention to detail.

Creativity in Writing Activity Books

Each activity book can be an artistic piece that includes different concepts such as science, colors, animals, nature, and even math. These activities make children feel like they’re on an educational adventure, where they learn new things in unconventional and enjoyable ways.

An Inspirational Message for Parents and Teachers

Activity books are not just a way to pass the time; they’re a real investment in a child’s future. When parents and teachers encourage children to explore activity books, they provide them with tools that help them develop a love for learning and exploration. Those moments spent coloring, playing, and thinking significantly shape a child’s personality and confidence.

Finally: A World of Possibilities and Creativity

Children’s activity books represent an integrated world of fun, learning, and inspiration. Through these books, children can explore their talents, refine their skills, and feel proud upon completing each activity. They serve as a window to sustainable learning in engaging ways that make children eager to learn more.

كتب الأنشطة ليست مجرد صفحات؛ إنها رحلات يكتشف فيها الأطفال أنفسهم ويعبرون عن أحلامهم وخيالهم بطرق ممتعة ومفيدة https://ko-fi.com/s/ca6ec9fc4c لمزيد من كتب الأنشطة والموارد للأطفال.

[trading-attitude]

🤯 Unlock Your Potential with These 14 NLP Principles

[psychotrenny]

You'll often hear broadly about the role of Christian Missionaries in Colonial enterprise, but it's rare to see people talk about the specific mechanism by which they operate. While reading about the various ways British rule over Nigeria was consolidated in the early 20th century, I found the section on missionary activity to be very interesting. Especially because missionaries often play similar roles in the Neo-Colonialism of today; providing intelligence to Imperialist institutions, manufacturing consent for Imperialist subjugation among colonised peoples and causing political divisions that weaken anti-Imperialist struggles are all just as important today as they were back then. Much like the broader structure of Colonialism itself, they've just taken different appearances to keep with the times while the core relations of domination and exploitation remain intact

Firstly, the missionaries often came into closer touch with the Nigerian peoples amongst whom they worked, got to know more than the administrator did about the peoples, their customs, traditions and so on and this intimate knowledge the missionaries placed at the disposal of the administration either through direct advice or in the form of published works. Some of the earliest historical, anthropological and linguistic studies of Nigerian peoples were carried out by the missionaries. Various missionaries were examiners in Nigerian languages for the administration which believed that knowledge of Nigerian languages would ease administrative work, make it possible to adjust policies to local susceptibilities and thus make British rule less objectionable to the people. Secondly through their ideological propaganda and schools the missions turned out to be the most effective means of winning " souls " to the western way of life. They were, in short, the cultural imperialists par excellence. Since the missionaries were closely associated in the thinking of Nigerian peoples with the administration, the benefits of literacy and the like which they brought redounded to the advantage of the colonial regime. On the role of the missions as a strong force in establishing colonial rule Sir H. H. Johnston has said : " The missionary is really gaining your experience for you (the colonial administrator) without any cost to yourself… They strengthen our hold over the country, they spread the use of the English language, they induct the natives into the best kind of civilisation, and, in fact, each mission station is an essay in colonisation ". Thirdly missionary work began by converting only a fraction of the community, and however small this fraction, this event meant splitting the community into two ideological camps, a development that weakened indigenous resistance to alien influences which preceded colonial rule in Nigeria and which with the inception of colonial rule strengthened statistically " the occupying force of whites ". At least this must have been the psychological effect on the minds of Nigerians even if militarily the wide dispersal of the missionaries constituted a weakness and an embarrassment to the Administration in cases of general uprising against British rule

Adiele Afigbo (1971), The consolidation of British imperial administration in Nigeria: 1900 - 1918, Civilisations Vol. 21 No.4

[translunaryanimus]

CHENESHT HOMEPLANET - ÂCHLANHTE Star: K-Class, Main Sequence 'Phetchâ' [Petkaa] - Comes from the word for white [Phe] and a contraction of Tlechâ [T'châ - Halo or Radiance. Has godly connotations] Position from Star: Second Axial Tilt: 15 degrees Gravity: .83g Vegetation: Dark Greenish Teal Supercontinent Name: Eshtmhêt [esht-meet] - People Path/People Track Planet Name Meaning: Âchlanhte [Aaklante] - Usually roughly translated as 'All Our Egg'. The name spawns from a Têphecha religious belief that the planet they live on was the first egg laid by one of their gods. Each culture has their own version of this story, but the Têphecha version is the most commonly told to other sophonts.

ETHNICITY NAMES AND MEANINGS

Llalâphe [Lalaape] - Fisher Fenhêalch [Feneelt] - Derived from an old word for Soil [Fenhach] Têphecha [Teepeka] - Stilt or Pole Lhbore [L'bore or Labore] - Large or Tall, sometimes translated as 'Giants' Ôernh [Oorn] - Derived from an old word for Water [Ôrnha] Chlâsle [Tlaasle] - Beader Nhâchchech [Naak'kek] - Weaver

More information under the cut

Âchlanhte's lower axial tilt and lesser gravity cause seasonal patterns to be far more mild than those of earths. The poles barely freeze or melt, the swamps stay wet and humid, and the haze of airborne algae stays easily suspended in the sky, turning it a foggy mint color. The predictable and mild seasons also allowed for easy, early chenesht settling across a vast majority of the Supercontinent's surface which led them to becoming the dominant species, and eventually, the only sapient one.

Some of you may remember This Earlier Post in which I touched a little on natural color variants within Chenesht, consider this the expanded version. Chenesht have 7 distinct ethnic groups which, for the most part, are also their cultural groups. I've covered the Chlâsle and the Nhâchchech briefly before in other posts and plan to eventually go more in depth on the other 5. In terms of cross referencing with the older post, the Chlâsle are the 'standard' coloration, the Nhâchchech are the 'polar' coloration, and the Têphecha are the 'central' coloration. While the colors in this post are still canon, Chlâsle are no longer considered the standard coloration as they're one of 7 ethnicities.

Âchlanhte's supercontinent Eshtmhêt has experienced very little tectonic drift since merging several million years before the dawn of civilization, allowing the various Chenesht cultures to stay socially and technologically connected and up to date with one another throughout their development. It's because of this that all Chenesht largerly speak the same language, with the only differences being slang terms and the occasional differing words between cultures. Each dialect is rougly 90% mutually intelligable with any other, with the Llalâphe and the Ôernh having the most linguistic drift. The 'correct' names for each ethnicity are sometimes debated due to variations on what they're called by themselves vs by others, ie. the Nhâchchech also being called the Eshtchchonh (pattern people) by the Chlâsle. The ones listed here are the popularly accepted proper names.

[blackstarlineage]

30 Ways Modern-Day Africans Still Exhibit a Colonial Mindset: A Garveyite Analysis

Marcus Garvey’s Pan-Africanist philosophy emphasized self-reliance, cultural pride, and the rejection of colonial influence. However, many Africans today still exhibit behaviours and attitudes rooted in a colonial mindset. Below are 30 examples, explained and analyzed in depth, from a Garveyite perspective:

1-10: Cultural Influence and Identity

1. Preference for European Standards of Beauty

Example: Many Africans prioritize lighter skin, straight hair, and European features over natural Black aesthetics.

Analysis: Skin-lightening creams and the global embrace of Eurocentric beauty ideals reflect internalized inferiority and rejection of African identity.

2. Disdain for African Languages

Example: African children are often discouraged from speaking native languages in favour of English, French, or Portuguese.

Analysis: Linguistic erasure ensures dependency on colonial languages for governance, education, and international relations.

3. Glorification of Western Education

Example: Degrees from European or North American universities are valued more than African ones.

Analysis: This reinforces the notion that African intellectual systems are inferior, perpetuating brain drain and dependency.

4. Adoption of Western Names

Example: Africans often give their children Western names instead of traditional African ones.

Analysis: This signifies a rejection of African heritage in favour of aligning with Western norms.

5. Colonial Religious Practices

Example: Christianity and Islam dominate African spiritual practices, while indigenous beliefs are demonized.

Analysis: Religion was used as a colonial tool to pacify and control, and its dominance reflects ongoing psychological colonization.

6. Rejection of African Fashion

Example: Western suits and dresses are deemed more "professional" than African attire in workplaces.

Analysis: Clothing reflects identity, and the preference for Western styles reinforces the idea that African traditions are primitive.

7. Accent Bias

Example: Africans with European or American accents are viewed as more intelligent or credible.

Analysis: This bias reflects internalized colonial superiority.

8. Neglect of African History

Example: African curricula prioritize European history over African empires like Mali, Songhai, or Great Zimbabwe.

Analysis: This erasure perpetuates ignorance about Africa’s rich heritage and contributions to civilization.

9. Worship of Western Entertainment

Example: Hollywood and European music dominate African media, sidelining local industries.

Analysis: This promotes cultural dependency and undervalues African creativity.

10. Desire to Migrate to the West

Example: Many Africans dream of emigrating to Europe or the U.S. for a "better life."

Analysis: This mindset undermines the potential of building strong nations on the continent.

11-20: Political and Economic Dependence

11. Reliance on Foreign Aid

Example: African governments often depend on Western aid for development projects.

Analysis: This fosters dependency and allows Western nations to control African policies.

12. Colonial Borders

Example: African nations still adhere to arbitrary colonial borders that divide ethnic groups.

Analysis: The refusal to renegotiate these borders reflects a lack of sovereignty and Pan-African unity.

13. Imitation of Western Governance

Example: African governments replicate Western political systems, often failing to adapt them to local contexts.

Analysis: Blind imitation undermines the development of systems rooted in African traditions and needs.

14. Dependence on Western Currencies

Example: The CFA franc, used by West and Central African nations, is controlled by France.

Analysis: This reflects continued economic colonization and inhibits financial independence.

15. Exploitation of Resources by Foreign Corporations

Example: Multinational companies exploit Africa's oil, minerals, and agriculture with little reinvestment.

Analysis: Africans prioritize Western partnerships over local ownership and control.

16. Outsourcing Security to Foreign Powers

Example: French troops stationed in Africa under the guise of fighting terrorism.

Analysis: This reinforces the narrative that Africans can not secure their own nations.

17. Preference for Imported Goods

Example: Imported clothing, food, and technology are seen as superior to local products.

Analysis: This devalues African production and stifles economic growth.

18. Neocolonial Debt Traps

Example: African nations take loans from institutions like the IMF, leading to perpetual debt.

Analysis: These loans come with conditions that undermine sovereignty.

19. Overdependence on Western Technologies

Example: Africa imports most of its technology rather than building local industries.

Analysis: This dependency stifles innovation and economic independence.

20. Election Interference by Western Powers

Example: Western nations influence African elections through funding or propaganda.

Analysis: This undermines democratic processes and reinforces external control.

21-30: Social and Psychological Patterns

21. Black Elitism

Example: Africans educated in the West often look down on those educated locally.

Analysis: This creates divisions within African societies and perpetuates classism.

22. Hostility Toward Pan-Africanism

Example: Resistance to efforts to unify Africa economically or politically.

Analysis: Colonial powers instilled fear of unity to prevent collective strength.

23. Undervaluing African Labour

Example: African workers are underpaid while foreign workers are overpaid for similar roles.

Analysis: This reflects an internalized belief in the superiority of non-African expertise.

24. Neglect of Local Agriculture

Example: African nations import staple foods like rice despite fertile lands.

Analysis: This prioritizes foreign economies over local food sovereignty.

25. Demonization of Traditional Medicine

Example: Preference for Western pharmaceuticals over indigenous remedies.

Analysis: This reflects distrust in African innovation and healing systems.

26. Preference for Colonial Languages in Art and Literature

Example: Writers and artists creating works in English or French to gain Western recognition.

Analysis: This marginalizes African languages and creativity.

27. Inferiority Complex Toward Western Nations

Example: Africans praise Western infrastructure while criticizing their own.

Analysis: This self-perception hinders the belief in African potential.

28. Overlooking the African Diaspora

Example: Africans often ignore the struggles and contributions of African Americans, Caribbeans, etc.

Analysis: Colonial divisions still separate the global African community.

29. Dependence on Colonial Education Systems

Example: African nations still use colonial curricula with minimal African content.

Analysis: Education is a tool of control, and this reflects ongoing intellectual colonization.

30. Hostility Toward Repatriation

Example: Africans discouraging descendants of the enslaved from returning to Africa.

Analysis: This reflects colonial teachings that Africa is undesirable or unworthy.

Garveyite Call to Action:

Marcus Garvey warned against mental colonization and called for:

Reclaiming African identity: Embrace African languages, cultures, and traditions.

Economic independence: Build industries, control resources, and support local economies.

Pan-African unity: Foster solidarity among Africans worldwide.

Rejection of Western validation: Recognize that Africa’s greatness does not depend on foreign approval.

“Liberate the minds of men, and ultimately, you will liberate the bodies of men.” – Marcus Garvey

[the-world-annealing]

Humans Aren't Space Orcs

Look, we got it all wrong.

It's provable scientific fact that aliens, if they exist, will probably be bigger than us, heavier than us, and from smaller planets.

Smaller planets will have thinner atmospheres, less even heat distribution, sharper differences between day and night temperatures, and less climate stability across seasons and continents (and thus less chance of stable agriculture developing or spreading far). There's a bit of a feedback loop here where extremes in climate encourage larger body sizes for regulation and storage purposes, and larger individuals plus lack of stable agriculture means even lower population sizes and densities.

So when we run into intelligent aliens, they'll think we look small, short, and yet weirdly bulky (because limbs that can support our weight in earth gravity would support much more in theirs). The average human will appear supernaturally social: the idea of retaining close relationships with dozens of people and subtly adapting to the unique context of each one is borderline unimaginable to them, let alone the idea of running mental models of these people in real time. Honestly, even the idea of regularly encountering that many people might freak them out a little.

Between larger human populations, a larger planet, and more widespread agriculture, human cuisine should seem mindbogglingly broad, even to other omnivorous foragers. Human linguistics, same story: highland new guinea is an agricultural birthplace the size of Sweden with eight hundred unique languages native to it. In general the depth of our art should be beyond anything most aliens have.

Does any of that sound like orc to you? No! But there is, of course, a fantasy creature well-known for gregariousness, good food, art, small round bodies, and a comfortable sedentary lifestyle interspersed with the occasional act of heroism...

Humans are space hobbits.

[tanoraqui]

[some time in the Fifth Age, in Aman...]

"A living language changes, you blithering idiot." A familiar, heated voice rose unprompted from across the room, over the genial hubbub and burble of the fountain show gala. "If it does not, then it must be dead indeed, for it cannot be being sustained by the breath of speakers! The only 'uncertainty' in this 'debate' is how you can call yourself a linguist if you do not understand this basic principle!"

Fingolfin barely processed the words, not in that voice. If he had, he would not have believed his own ears. If he had somehow believed his own ears, he would have suspected mockery, or a ploy, or perhaps necromantic possession.

Fortunately, his reflexes for winning arguments were faster than any other working of his mind.

"I knew it!" he shouted, rounding on his brother from across the wide hall. He abandoned his conversation partner entirely in order to advance on Fëanor, alight with righteous victory. "I knew you agreed with the basic principle! You stubborn, contrary, illogical—"

"Oh, shut up, Nolofinwë." Fëanor likewise dismissed entirely the upstart linguistics professor he'd been haranguing, in favor of his older foe. A corridor had opened between them, as party-goers scrambled out of the crossfire or backed up to get a better view. "You've never met a principle of study nor logic that you didn't wish to twist to suit—"

"'A living language changes!'" Fingolfin quoted back over him, too elated to rise to any other bait. He drained his entire wine glass, slapped it down on the lip of a fountain in passing, and advanced enough to jab Fëanor in the chest with one finger. He grinned. "I knew it. You knew it. I was right."

Fëanor's face had, over the course of this exchange, made a very rapid shift from his original proud irritation to the embarrassment of being caught out to a familiar fiery sneer. It now settled into an even more familiar murderous glower.

"I have reconsidered my past positions in the face of new evidence and argument," he hissed. "It is the sign of an intelligent, ever-developing mind at work. I only wish you could say the same—"

Hands pushed them apart, followed by arms, followed by an entire Lalwen, aided by the stylish circumference of her skirts.

"Sweet Erudition, neither of you has changed a whit," she muttered.

Gripping the front of both their robes in a way that suggested that she could be choking them if she wanted to, she said more loudly, "My dear brothers! Joyous though I am at our collective ongoing reconciliation—" (she discreetly twisted Fëanor's robe in an ever so slightly choking manner, to remind him that she, too, had been entirely correct the entire time about the stupid thorn) —"perhaps we should take any further discussion outside? This is, after all, a debut of liquid forms, not a forum of linguistic debate!"

[serpentface]

Rough map of the far eastern subcontinent, the contemporary spread of its Major language families, and the (VERY, VERY rough strokes of the) three human migrations that formed the majority of this landmass' population (and initiated the spread of these languages).

There were three major major human settlement events in this area, two of which began during the paleolithic period. These dispersals occurred over a scale of centuries/millennia, and not all at the same time.

Peoples derived from the same settlement group share at least some degree of 'recent' (on the scale of millennia) common ancestry, and descendants of separate settlement groups have at times merged (IE the North Wardi are of mixed proto-Finnic (northwest settlement) and proto-Wardi (south seaway settlement) descent on a population-wide scale (reflecting a complete merger of previously separate populations, rather than mixed ethnicity on individual or sub-population scales)).

-SOUTH SEAWAY SETTLEMENT: Likely the first human settlement event here. Emerged across former land bridge that fully connected this landmass to the rest of the supercontinent. Initiated the spread of the North-center seaway, Dain, and Viper language families.

-NORTHWEST SETTLEMENT: Emerged from across the far northwest Inner Seaway via sea travel. Initiated the spread of the northwest-seaway and north sea language families.

-SOUTH SEA SETTLEMENT: The most recent settlement event (began during the neolithic period). This originated with a group dispersing via sea travel over a 50-100 year period, fleeing rising sea levels in a formerly extant large island chain to the southeast. This is the only settlement event that has any form of historical documentation, via the Migration Cycle body of stories preserved among the Yanti people. Initiated the spread of the South Sea language family.

---

A language family refers to groups of languages descended from a common ancestor, not mutual intelligibility (IE: The Highlands, Finnic, and Keppeji languages are all from the same language family. A Highlands speaker might recognize cognates in the Finnic language, but could not comprehend a Finnic speaker, LET ALONE a Keppeji speaker). Each can be further subdivided into narrower language families (IE: Wardi/Wogan languages form their own family with closer common ancestry than to other Viper language family groups)

The language map should not be taken dead literally and shows approximate areas in which each family is spoken Predominantly, with no nuance for areas of linguistic convergence or the influence of outside language families. It also does not include comparatively minor language families developed in isolation, or major language families with very few representatives on this landmass (ie: Jazaiti language is of the major White Sea language family, not shown on this map).

Here's a (by NO means exhaustive) list of established peoples who speak languages from each family predominantly:

Northwest Seaway language family: Keppej, Korya, Moorlanders, Finns, Hill Tribes, and North Wardi.

Dain language family: Royal Dains, Dainach, Tho-Tykoso, 'Sea Dains', The Floating House, Hrolje.

North Sea language family: Varkhata-Byla, Rodi-Byla, Uswa-Byla, Urswali, Ursvali.

Viper language family: Wardi, Wogan, Cholemdinae, Ubiyan, Askosi, and Uboe.

South Sea language family: Yuroma, Highland Yuroma, Yanti, Losurrwe, Ur-Yamse.

North-center seaway language family: Buweni, Thingarri.

[probablyasocialecologist]

The programmer Simon Willison has described the training for large language models as “money laundering for copyrighted data,” which I find a useful way to think about the appeal of generative-A.I. programs: they let you engage in something like plagiarism, but there’s no guilt associated with it because it’s not clear even to you that you’re copying. Some have claimed that large language models are not laundering the texts they’re trained on but, rather, learning from them, in the same way that human writers learn from the books they’ve read. But a large language model is not a writer; it’s not even a user of language. Language is, by definition, a system of communication, and it requires an intention to communicate. Your phone’s auto-complete may offer good suggestions or bad ones, but in neither case is it trying to say anything to you or the person you’re texting. The fact that ChatGPT can generate coherent sentences invites us to imagine that it understands language in a way that your phone’s auto-complete does not, but it has no more intention to communicate. It is very easy to get ChatGPT to emit a series of words such as “I am happy to see you.” There are many things we don’t understand about how large language models work, but one thing we can be sure of is that ChatGPT is not happy to see you. A dog can communicate that it is happy to see you, and so can a prelinguistic child, even though both lack the capability to use words. ChatGPT feels nothing and desires nothing, and this lack of intention is why ChatGPT is not actually using language. What makes the words “I’m happy to see you” a linguistic utterance is not that the sequence of text tokens that it is made up of are well formed; what makes it a linguistic utterance is the intention to communicate something. Because language comes so easily to us, it’s easy to forget that it lies on top of these other experiences of subjective feeling and of wanting to communicate that feeling. We’re tempted to project those experiences onto a large language model when it emits coherent sentences, but to do so is to fall prey to mimicry; it’s the same phenomenon as when butterflies evolve large dark spots on their wings that can fool birds into thinking they’re predators with big eyes. There is a context in which the dark spots are sufficient; birds are less likely to eat a butterfly that has them, and the butterfly doesn’t really care why it’s not being eaten, as long as it gets to live. But there is a big difference between a butterfly and a predator that poses a threat to a bird. A person using generative A.I. to help them write might claim that they are drawing inspiration from the texts the model was trained on, but I would again argue that this differs from what we usually mean when we say one writer draws inspiration from another. Consider a college student who turns in a paper that consists solely of a five-page quotation from a book, stating that this quotation conveys exactly what she wanted to say, better than she could say it herself. Even if the student is completely candid with the instructor about what she’s done, it’s not accurate to say that she is drawing inspiration from the book she’s citing. The fact that a large language model can reword the quotation enough that the source is unidentifiable doesn’t change the fundamental nature of what’s going on. As the linguist Emily M. Bender has noted, teachers don’t ask students to write essays because the world needs more student essays. The point of writing essays is to strengthen students’ critical-thinking skills; in the same way that lifting weights is useful no matter what sport an athlete plays, writing essays develops skills necessary for whatever job a college student will eventually get. Using ChatGPT to complete assignments is like bringing a forklift into the weight room; you will never improve your cognitive fitness that way.

31 August 2024

[alacants]

There's also the obvious issue that RFET massively fucked up their Spanish tennis player production line & basically the only relevant Spanish ATP players in their 20s are Carlos and Foki. And they're pretty close! Close enough for Foki to invite Carlos to his wedding anyway. But Foki still isn't consistent enough to go deep in most of the tournaments Carlos goes deep at. Then there are a few Spanish-speaking South Americans near-ish the top of the rankings, but they're all generally quite a tight group. Carlos & Fran Cerundolo still seem pretty close & apparently their parents are friends. But... that's it for people Carlos can fully communicate with. So it kinda makes sense he doesn't have close friends on tour.

Also, I just said this in someone else's inbox but I think it's relevant again here lmao: Spaniards and Italians are generally mutually intelligible with a bit of effort & I don't think it's a coincidence that, out of the non-Spanish speakers, Carlos is/was closest to Cobolli, Musetti & Nardi. I think the Itagnol thing contributed to why he originally wanted to be friends with Jannik. But Jannik seems to be less good at understanding Spanish than the other Italians, probably because his first language is German.

anon you read my mind wrt RFET, i started to include a tangent about the spain landscape (right down to foki lmao!!!!) and then was like ok no getting off track. thank you for this concise summation. also, i had no idea about the alcaraz and cerundolo parents?? huh!

i have to defend the quasi-relevance of my fave scrubs but obviously i can't argue with the overall characterization lol. besides they're too old to be age group peers anyway, which is your point. when i went down the scrub rabbit hole a few months ago it was immediately clear that there was, in fact, a tight group of players who developed and emerged at roughly the same time: munar, martinez, taberner, etc. none of whom are anywhere near carlos' level anyway, but, like, at least the first two are around pretty consistently + are pretty close in age to the prev gen as well. after them it just kinda... stops.

sure is a sequence of diminishing numbers AND diminishing returns lmao? nadal, ferrer, lopez, verdasco (+almagro, granollers, m. lopez) -> rba, pablo, rcb -> munar, martinez -> foki -> i know RFET are on their knees thanking god for carlos alcaraz. and coming up through the ranks they've got, what, p much just landaluce, until jaime alcaraz makes it or doesn't.

this is depressing for my captain-ferru-lifts-the-davis-cup-trophy agenda so BACK ON TRACK to say thank you for the linguistic notes as well—that makes a lot of sense from carlos' perspective, and v interesting point about jannik understanding or not understanding spanish.

[ravonosify]

Headcanons for my boy Hoaxe :)

He's warm! He's a fire mage of course he's warm. He also generally smells like smoke

He's very intelligent linguistically and can pick up new languages and words no problem. Inspired by the fact that his backstory made it seem like he learned Bugnish very quickly and he was also able to tell where the Sapling was without a Roach translator

Extension of the above: he was able to pick up some words of the written Giant language in his youth. That's how he knew how to operate the stove. He found the owner's manual lol

One more language detail! Thick-headed flies like him are generally good at languages since they need to quickly and effectively blend in with bugs they parasitize.

Basically canon with his healing items of choice but he loves junk food!!! He's like this 'cause he grew up eating poison in the Giant's Lair and if his stomach's not hurting then he assumes something's wrong

Speaking of the Giant’s Lair! He's had many run-ins with the Omega, so much so that if the Omega saw him it would recognize him

He knows how to fight Dead Landers because Omega pitted him against so many. He can't take on a hoard but he can take on one or two

When he's angry, he sparks like a lighter, typically from his fingers but if he's speaking it'll come from his mouthparts. When he had the crown, his amplified power meant that his subjects had to keep him calm or he'd be accidentally conjuring fireballs instead of sparks.

He doesn't really know that communal eating is a thing. When he was in the Dead Lands he could only eat by himself in safety, when he was in the Wasp Kingdom the Wasps were so mean he had to sneak food and eat it in his room, and when he was king, he had to eat alone to hide his fly mouthparts anyway.

The trash outside Master Slice's kitchen was the best food he ever had. He was looking forward to forcing Master Slice to be the royal chef when he took over Bugaria

His broken wing means that one of his halteres is exposed. Wearing a cloak helps somewhat, but without the cloak, it can get super sensitive (sometimes to the point of pain) and anything more than a slight breeze can cause balance issues for him.

Hoaxe's species parasitizes other bugs as larvae. He couldn't do that in the Giant's Lair, so he has some health issues as a result. he's smaller, weaker, and less dexterous than others of his species and he retains some larval habits, like preferring dark, cramped spaces and eating like a black hole.

Both his altered development and the less-than-ideal environments he was raised in led him to be bad at empathizing and recognizing social cues. Not what made him evil, but it did impact his life.

He's got fly vision. He can see almost 360 degrees around himself, though not perfectly, so he'll move his head to focus on something or to indicate that he's listening to someone. But this made a fun challenge for the Wasps who wanted to catch him off guard. This is also how he could dodge Maki at the beginning of chapter 5.

[w98pops]

my mind is really not in the right place rn so here's a list of some silly nico and june facts. mostly june tho.

june and nico became friends while in frumentarii training

she was the best student and he was the worst

june thought he was a loser but hang out with nico bcs all other guys were weird. nico was also weird but in a harmless way

june had that awkward teenage period where she thought she was a gay man and developed a crush on the guy

nico did the same :)

she made fun of his baby face constantly, and also was the one to suggest nico to grow a beard

nico was secretly jealous of june having a big family. that orphan boy really needed a father figure :(

nico idolised aletus, and june thought he was incompetent at best. but aletus was close to her dad, so she pushed his buttons to access some very illegal books (engineering, computer science, and gender studies. also some fantasy novels as a treat)

they never met again after june was assigned to her mission at maccarran. ultimately, their companionship lasted for about 6 years.

also, yeah, not a lot of people know that wendyjune is, in fact, canon!!! they dated for a few months and broke up after the second battle. wendy started a relationship with nico half a year later, and june was not normal about it. at all

june was promoted to an intelligence officer sometime after the ncr retreat from new vegas. spying on both of her exes really became her job 😭

june's mom had an unfinished linguistics degree. after the destruction of the legion, she completed her major :)!!!

[jpitha]

Don’t worry, I know someone.

Gev, Palitan, and Vivian stood in front of the door. It was at least three meters tall, 2 wide, and made of metal. It was inscribed with words in at least 4 different languages.

It was unfortunate that nobody knew any of them.

“Well, It’s clearly a warning.” Gev gestured towards the text. His furry, clawed hand tapping the lowest text, which was at their eye level. “Whoever made this would not have done it in so many languages if it wasn’t something important to be read by everyone who came by. I’m sure whatever is behind this door is dangerous.”

“No, it’s clearly a proclamation. Something some ancient Ruler wanted to be known far and wide. Information that was important to their peoples. They might have ruled a large swath of land, home to many peoples who spoke many languages. It’s designed for intelligibility. That’s why it’s in so many languages.” Palitan’s upper tentacles stroked the sunken carved letters while Vivian made a face. Her archeological training was screaming in her head at them touching this clearly ancient thing.

Gev’s laquered claws slid in and out of their sheaths. “It’s unfortunately really that we’ll never know what it says. We could learn so much about these people.”

Vivian looked up from her notes. “Why wouldn’t we know what it says?”

Gev laughed his barking cough of a laugh. “The people who wrote this are millennia passed. There hasn’t been anyone who has spoken this language in at least one thousand solar cycles. Viv, you humans need to understand that sometimes there are just things in the universe we’ll never learn.”

Vivian scoffed. “Well, then if you think you’ll never learn this, you won’t mind if I give it a try. You can continue your survey.” She began unpacking a portable sensorium from its carrying case.

Palitan’s chromatophores swirled and flashed confusion. “Vivian, you’re not a linguist, you’re an archeologist. How can you learn an ancient language?”

”I’m not a linguist, but I know some. Don’t you network Palitan? Don’t you make friends outside of your discipline?” Vivian didn’t look up from the case as she clipped together a framework and started attaching recording devices at regular intervals.

Palitan’s swirling colors stopped, and they settled on the cool blue of curiosity. “I mean, I do but… I have a feeling humans do it differently.”

Vivian chuckled. “I doubt it Palitan. Humans are just human. We’re not some kind of strange and special people.”

Gev’s fur rippled. “Now you’re being modest. I’ve seen your homeworld, and its gigantic moon. Another planetary body that large that close? It must have done something to your development.”

That was enough to make Vivian look up from her work. “Gev, you’re telling me that moon power makes humans unique? Do you hear what you’re saying? Can you hear how that sounds?”

Gev’s small ears - looking oddly like teddy bear ears - waggled. He was being deliberately silly.

After about a tenth of a cycle of work Vivian had the sensorium completely set up. The framework was positioned around the door and the projectors and emitters were in place. She signaled to their ship in orbit, and it dialed a connection that she provided in the ansible. As Gev and Palitan watched, there was a short tone, and the holoprojectors resolved the image of someone. It was a Gren, tall and imposing with their reverse articulated legs and many sets of eyes. It turned and looked around and seeing Vivian their mouthparts opened wide in their version of a grin. “Vivian! You old battlestar! How have you been?”

Smiling, Vivian put her hands on her hips and faced the Gren directly. The sensorium sensed her reaction and focused on her. “I’m doing well Tami’tarr. I’m pleased to see you’re still taking my calls.”

“How could I not, Vivian? Your calls always show me something… interesting. What do you need today?” They gestured towards the door. “Something to do with this I presume?”

Vivian nodded and walked over to the projection. Standing next to them, Gev and Palitan marveled at how it looked like the Gren was here next to them. They knew about the sensorium of course. Ever since the humans came onto the scene they brought their multi-sense recording device with them. They especially liked using them in interviews so that the whole room could be recorded. The sights, sounds, smells, even touch and temperature could be recorded and played back so anyone could almost be where the event was recorded. They were unaware of them being used as a projection device however. Vivian took out a small digital pointer. “It’s a door - we think - looks like pre-fall Heliman. None of the languages carved into the door are Heliman however. I know they had relations with a few of the sapients in their nearby section of space, but we don’t recognize any of the languages here. Do you?”

“Hmm.” Tami’tarr peered at the words on the door. His body made a rumbling noise that Vivian couldn’t help think sounded like a contented purr. Tami’tarr always liked a mystery. He leaned back and gestured with his own pointer. “Here, near the top. This one looks like it’s Late three hundredth dynasty Uutipan. I can’t read it though, I just recognize the shape of the words. Do you know Professor Filomina at Brekin University?”

Vivian nodded. “I met her two years ago at the conference. You were there. I think you introduced us.”

Tami’tarr’s mouthparts waggled a nod. “Ah yes, you are correct. She can translate Uutipan. I don’t know if she understands all the way back to the late three hundredth dynasty, but she’ll know it better than me.”

“Thanks Tami’tarr. I’ll give her a ring.” Vivian reached up and patted Tami’tarr through the sensorium.

“Let me know what she finds. I must admit I haven’t seen something like this before either.”

“Of course, Tam. Talk to you soon.” The Gren disappears as the connection is broken.

Vivian spends the next solar day making calls, making small talk and describing her problem. Gev and Palitan spend the time taking measurements and gathering other information on the site. “Vivian is wasting her time.” Gev shakes his head irritatedly. “She should be helping us take measurements. The words are untranslatable.”

Palitan’s color shifts to a acquiescing yellow. “That may be Gev, but she has gotten permission to run the dig in her own way. If we could translate the text, it would be helpful. We can afford to have her burn a day going through her address book pestering her friends.”

‘Hmmph. That’s their problem.”

“What? Vivian?”

“Humans in general. You tell them something can’t be done and their first reaction is to go ‘I bet I can actually do it.’ They wind up wasting time and resources on things that were declared impossible a century ago.”

Palitan says nothing, but continues to work.

Just before evening meal, Palitan and Gev save their work and upload their measurements and notes and make the way back to the door. Now, Vivian is talking with a K’laxi they’ve never met. They’re one of the few sapient species that is actually shorter than the human and they’re both standing very close to the door, looking at the bottommost carvings. The K’laxi is talking very animatedly as they walk up.

“…haven’t seen things like this in decades! I can’t believe you found another example Viv! This completely upends our research on what we knew about the late three hundredth dynasty! You’ve given me enough here to write three papers at least. You’ll get co-authorship of course.”

Vivian laughed. “I appreciate your generosity Lem. Let me know when you need my notes.”

Lem snapped their pad closed and stood. “As soon as you have them compiled please.”

Vivian bent straight and stretched. “You got it Lem. See you soon.”

Their tail flicked and they winked and the holo disconnected. Vivian stared disassembling the sensorium.

“Have you given up Vivian? Ready to continue the work we were assigned to do?” Gev’s fur bristled. “Well, too bad, we’ve completed the measurements. I’ll be sure to let the head know about this.”

Palitan’s color switched to a pale pink of surprise. “Gev! There’s no need to be hostile. The head stated that Vivian’s main job was to learn more about the people who built this.”

Gev’s head bobbed vigorously. “Indeed. And spending all day calling the entire galaxy to translate a door tells us nothing about who built this site!”

Vivian finished putting the sensorium away in its case and stood. She calmly walked over to Gev and Palitan. Palitan was only a little taller than her, and Gev was nearly two meters tall and was more than a bit intimidating. She looked down at her pad.

“This door shall remain open from dawn to dusk without exception. The offices herein will be open according to the hours mounted on their doors. All who enter shall surrender their weapons. A chit will be provided verifying their ownership. Those with appointments with the Head Builder are to check in with the front desk before proceeding to the Builder office.

“What’s that? What are you talking about?” Gev looked down at her irritatedly.

Palitan nudged Gev with one of his tentacles. “It’s the translation of the door.”

Gev looked down at Vivian and at the translation she showed him. All of the different languages were translated and sure enough, they said what she read off to him. It was a protocol note on what to do at the Builder Administration building.

Palitan gestured excitedly. “Gev! That means this was a Builder building! Part of the original Empress! Not only did they have local influence, but they either traded with, or were a part of the full empire. We’re far away from a Gate too, I wonder if one was destroyed, or they just flew a long way.”

Vivian nodded. “See Gev? Now that we know what the door says, it opens up so many new questions that we can try an answer. Even though the door is ‘just’ protocol rules, it implies so much more.”

“Hmmph.” Gev says nothing but his ears twitch.”

Palitan’s coloring changes to an impressed green. “Vivian, this is amazing. You figured all this out in just one day!”

“That’s just is Palitan. I didn’t do it. I knew people who could help. I wound up calling five different experts while you were working. It pays to know people.” Vivian picks up the sensorium case. “It’s not what you know, but who you know.”

[novlr]

How do you best depict a language barrier? I have a character who doesn't understand much English and speaks even less, but most of the others don't understand a word of Japanese, which is what she speaks.

Communication is a cornerstone of any good characterisation. But for some characters there may be elements that block traditionally clear communication, and language barriers are just one example of that. Every interaction is filled with potential misunderstandings or revelations of clarity. Let’s explore how to bring language barriers to life in your writing, showing the struggles and triumphs that come with characters trying to connect across language and culture.

Understand the role of language in your story

Consider the cultural and geographical context of your characters.

Explore the historical ties or conflicts that might have led to the language differences.

Determine the significance of the language barrier to the plot—is it an obstacle, a source of conflict, or a way to deepen character relationships?

How can you use language to illustrate the power dynamics between characters?

What is the emotional impact of miscommunication on all your characters?

Why do you want to write about language barriers? If it’s just for the sake of a miscommunication trope, consider if there’s perhaps a better way for you to achieve the same aim.

Have you taken the time to understand the culture whose language you are trying to represent?

Characterisation through language

Incorporate a mix of languages or dialects to enrich the authenticity of the setting and the characters’ experiences.

Pay attention to the non-verbal communication cues that can transcend language barriers, such as body language and facial expressions.

Respectfully create characters with varying degrees of proficiency in the language they’re learning or interacting with.

Use language as a way to show a character’s adaptability, intelligence, or stubbornness.

Let characters’ reactions to the language barrier drive their development throughout the story.

Consider how language barriers may influence a character’s inner thoughts and how they perceive the world around them.

The mechanics of writing dialogue

Don’t overuse accents or continually spell them out. Use description to signal a character’s struggle instead of phonetically writing it.

Suggest broken language skills by using simple words, or incorrect grammar, but don’t resort to stereotypes.

If you choose to write an accent phonetically, don’t repeat this for every line of dialogue. Use it once as an example, and then use description to give the sense of it moving forward.

Balance readability with authenticity—make sure the dialogue is understandable to your audience in a way that is still respectful to your character.

Foster immersion through context rather than a direct translation of foreign words which often don’t hold the same meaning. Using vocabulary that characters and readers can deduce from context strengthens the narrative and characterisation.

Present the characters’ linguistic progression realistically, showing their learning curve and how it affects their interactions.

Non-verbal communication

Emphasise body language, facial expressions, and gestures to show communication without spoken language.

Use context clues and the characters’ surroundings to help convey meaning.

Explore how misunderstandings can arise from non-verbal miscommunications, but also show when non-verbal communication helps clarify things that can’t be conveyed verbally.

Consider the situational context that might enhance or impede non-verbal understanding among characters. For example, in high-tension scenes, even subtle gestures can carry heavy meaning.

Acknowledge cultural variations in body language and educate readers subtly through the narrative.

Describe the physical environment as it can also influence the way characters use non-verbal communication—proximity, personal space, and even the weather can all play roles.

The emotional impact of language barriers

Show how characters find innovative ways to express themselves and connect with others.

Describe the frustration, isolation, or desperation that characters may feel when they can’t communicate.

Use the language barrier to create poignant moments of miscommunication and resolution.

Show how shared experiences can forge bonds that transcend words and even serve as a foundation for trust.

Explore the characters’ emotional journeys as they navigate through their inability to communicate. This can lead to a deeper understanding of each other over time, despite the initial hurdles.

Consider the long-term effects of language barriers on relationships and character psyche, both positive and negative.

Research and authenticity

Study the languages you are writing about, including their structure and common phrases. If you’re writing a fantasy language, then research common language structures on which to base your characters’ experiences.

Understand the culture tied to the language to avoid stereotyping and to provide richer detail. For real languages, do research, for fictional languages, work on some deep worldbuilding for authenticity.

If possible, talk to speakers of the language you’re writing about, or speak to folks who have experienced a similar language barrier more generally.

Seek feedback from native speakers or cultural experts to ensure accurate representation and to honour the community’s linguistic nuances.

Be mindful of the socio-political influences on language and communication, presenting these complexities through your characters’ interactions either through worldbuilding, or researching real-world etymology.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

"Open" "AI" isn’t

Tomorrow (19 Aug), I'm appearing at the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books. I'm on a 2:30PM panel called "Return From Retirement," followed by a signing:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks

The crybabies who freak out about The Communist Manifesto appearing on university curriculum clearly never read it – chapter one is basically a long hymn to capitalism's flexibility and inventiveness, its ability to change form and adapt itself to everything the world throws at it and come out on top:

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm#007

Today, leftists signal this protean capacity of capital with the -washing suffix: greenwashing, genderwashing, queerwashing, wokewashing – all the ways capital cloaks itself in liberatory, progressive values, while still serving as a force for extraction, exploitation, and political corruption.

A smart capitalist is someone who, sensing the outrage at a world run by 150 old white guys in boardrooms, proposes replacing half of them with women, queers, and people of color. This is a superficial maneuver, sure, but it's an incredibly effective one.

In "Open (For Business): Big Tech, Concentrated Power, and the Political Economy of Open AI," a new working paper, Meredith Whittaker, David Gray Widder and Sarah B Myers document a new kind of -washing: openwashing:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4543807

Openwashing is the trick that large "AI" companies use to evade regulation and neutralizing critics, by casting themselves as forces of ethical capitalism, committed to the virtue of openness. No one should be surprised to learn that the products of the "open" wing of an industry whose products are neither "artificial," nor "intelligent," are also not "open." Every word AI huxters say is a lie; including "and," and "the."

So what work does the "open" in "open AI" do? "Open" here is supposed to invoke the "open" in "open source," a movement that emphasizes a software development methodology that promotes code transparency, reusability and extensibility, which are three important virtues.

But "open source" itself is an offshoot of a more foundational movement, the Free Software movement, whose goal is to promote freedom, and whose method is openness. The point of software freedom was technological self-determination, the right of technology users to decide not just what their technology does, but who it does it to and who it does it for:

https://locusmag.com/2022/01/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-is-a-luddite-literature/

The open source split from free software was ostensibly driven by the need to reassure investors and businesspeople so they would join the movement. The "free" in free software is (deliberately) ambiguous, a bit of wordplay that sometimes misleads people into thinking it means "Free as in Beer" when really it means "Free as in Speech" (in Romance languages, these distinctions are captured by translating "free" as "libre" rather than "gratis").

The idea behind open source was to rebrand free software in a less ambiguous – and more instrumental – package that stressed cost-savings and software quality, as well as "ecosystem benefits" from a co-operative form of development that recruited tinkerers, independents, and rivals to contribute to a robust infrastructural commons.

But "open" doesn't merely resolve the linguistic ambiguity of libre vs gratis – it does so by removing the "liberty" from "libre," the "freedom" from "free." "Open" changes the pole-star that movement participants follow as they set their course. Rather than asking "Which course of action makes us more free?" they ask, "Which course of action makes our software better?"

Thus, by dribs and drabs, the freedom leeches out of openness. Today's tech giants have mobilized "open" to create a two-tier system: the largest tech firms enjoy broad freedom themselves – they alone get to decide how their software stack is configured. But for all of us who rely on that (increasingly unavoidable) software stack, all we have is "open": the ability to peer inside that software and see how it works, and perhaps suggest improvements to it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBknF2yUZZ8

In the Big Tech internet, it's freedom for them, openness for us. "Openness" – transparency, reusability and extensibility – is valuable, but it shouldn't be mistaken for technological self-determination. As the tech sector becomes ever-more concentrated, the limits of openness become more apparent.

But even by those standards, the openness of "open AI" is thin gruel indeed (that goes triple for the company that calls itself "OpenAI," which is a particularly egregious openwasher).

The paper's authors start by suggesting that the "open" in "open AI" is meant to imply that an "open AI" can be scratch-built by competitors (or even hobbyists), but that this isn't true. Not only is the material that "open AI" companies publish insufficient for reproducing their products, even if those gaps were plugged, the resource burden required to do so is so intense that only the largest companies could do so.

Beyond this, the "open" parts of "open AI" are insufficient for achieving the other claimed benefits of "open AI": they don't promote auditing, or safety, or competition. Indeed, they often cut against these goals.

"Open AI" is a wordgame that exploits the malleability of "open," but also the ambiguity of the term "AI": "a grab bag of approaches, not… a technical term of art, but more … marketing and a signifier of aspirations." Hitching this vague term to "open" creates all kinds of bait-and-switch opportunities.

That's how you get Meta claiming that LLaMa2 is "open source," despite being licensed in a way that is absolutely incompatible with any widely accepted definition of the term:

https://blog.opensource.org/metas-llama-2-license-is-not-open-source/

LLaMa-2 is a particularly egregious openwashing example, but there are plenty of other ways that "open" is misleadingly applied to AI: sometimes it means you can see the source code, sometimes that you can see the training data, and sometimes that you can tune a model, all to different degrees, alone and in combination.

But even the most "open" systems can't be independently replicated, due to raw computing requirements. This isn't the fault of the AI industry – the computational intensity is a fact, not a choice – but when the AI industry claims that "open" will "democratize" AI, they are hiding the ball. People who hear these "democratization" claims (especially policymakers) are thinking about entrepreneurial kids in garages, but unless these kids have access to multi-billion-dollar data centers, they can't be "disruptors" who topple tech giants with cool new ideas. At best, they can hope to pay rent to those giants for access to their compute grids, in order to create products and services at the margin that rely on existing products, rather than displacing them.

The "open" story, with its claims of democratization, is an especially important one in the context of regulation. In Europe, where a variety of AI regulations have been proposed, the AI industry has co-opted the open source movement's hard-won narrative battles about the harms of ill-considered regulation.

For open source (and free software) advocates, many tech regulations aimed at taming large, abusive companies – such as requirements to surveil and control users to extinguish toxic behavior – wreak collateral damage on the free, open, user-centric systems that we see as superior alternatives to Big Tech. This leads to the paradoxical effect of passing regulation to "punish" Big Tech that end up simply shaving an infinitesimal percentage off the giants' profits, while destroying the small co-ops, nonprofits and startups before they can grow to be a viable alternative.

The years-long fight to get regulators to understand this risk has been waged by principled actors working for subsistence nonprofit wages or for free, and now the AI industry is capitalizing on lawmakers' hard-won consideration for collateral damage by claiming to be "open AI" and thus vulnerable to overbroad regulation.

But the "open" projects that lawmakers have been coached to value are precious because they deliver a level playing field, competition, innovation and democratization – all things that "open AI" fails to deliver. The regulations the AI industry is fighting also don't necessarily implicate the speech implications that are core to protecting free software:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/remembering-case-established-code-speech

Just think about LLaMa-2. You can download it for free, along with the model weights it relies on – but not detailed specs for the data that was used in its training. And the source-code is licensed under a homebrewed license cooked up by Meta's lawyers, a license that only glancingly resembles anything from the Open Source Definition:

https://opensource.org/osd/

Core to Big Tech companies' "open AI" offerings are tools, like Meta's PyTorch and Google's TensorFlow. These tools are indeed "open source," licensed under real OSS terms. But they are designed and maintained by the companies that sponsor them, and optimize for the proprietary back-ends each company offers in its own cloud. When programmers train themselves to develop in these environments, they are gaining expertise in adding value to a monopolist's ecosystem, locking themselves in with their own expertise. This a classic example of software freedom for tech giants and open source for the rest of us.

One way to understand how "open" can produce a lock-in that "free" might prevent is to think of Android: Android is an open platform in the sense that its sourcecode is freely licensed, but the existence of Android doesn't make it any easier to challenge the mobile OS duopoly with a new mobile OS; nor does it make it easier to switch from Android to iOS and vice versa.

Another example: MongoDB, a free/open database tool that was adopted by Amazon, which subsequently forked the codebase and tuning it to work on their proprietary cloud infrastructure.

The value of open tooling as a stickytrap for creating a pool of developers who end up as sharecroppers who are glued to a specific company's closed infrastructure is well-understood and openly acknowledged by "open AI" companies. Zuckerberg boasts about how PyTorch ropes developers into Meta's stack, "when there are opportunities to make integrations with products, [so] it’s much easier to make sure that developers and other folks are compatible with the things that we need in the way that our systems work."

Tooling is a relatively obscure issue, primarily debated by developers. A much broader debate has raged over training data – how it is acquired, labeled, sorted and used. Many of the biggest "open AI" companies are totally opaque when it comes to training data. Google and OpenAI won't even say how many pieces of data went into their models' training – let alone which data they used.

Other "open AI" companies use publicly available datasets like the Pile and CommonCrawl. But you can't replicate their models by shoveling these datasets into an algorithm. Each one has to be groomed – labeled, sorted, de-duplicated, and otherwise filtered. Many "open" models merge these datasets with other, proprietary sets, in varying (and secret) proportions.

Quality filtering and labeling for training data is incredibly expensive and labor-intensive, and involves some of the most exploitative and traumatizing clickwork in the world, as poorly paid workers in the Global South make pennies for reviewing data that includes graphic violence, rape, and gore.

Not only is the product of this "data pipeline" kept a secret by "open" companies, the very nature of the pipeline is likewise cloaked in mystery, in order to obscure the exploitative labor relations it embodies (the joke that "AI" stands for "absent Indians" comes out of the South Asian clickwork industry).

The most common "open" in "open AI" is a model that arrives built and trained, which is "open" in the sense that end-users can "fine-tune" it – usually while running it on the manufacturer's own proprietary cloud hardware, under that company's supervision and surveillance. These tunable models are undocumented blobs, not the rigorously peer-reviewed transparent tools celebrated by the open source movement.

If "open" was a way to transform "free software" from an ethical proposition to an efficient methodology for developing high-quality software; then "open AI" is a way to transform "open source" into a rent-extracting black box.

Some "open AI" has slipped out of the corporate silo. Meta's LLaMa was leaked by early testers, republished on 4chan, and is now in the wild. Some exciting stuff has emerged from this, but despite this work happening outside of Meta's control, it is not without benefits to Meta. As an infamous leaked Google memo explains:

Paradoxically, the one clear winner in all of this is Meta. Because the leaked model was theirs, they have effectively garnered an entire planet's worth of free labor. Since most open source innovation is happening on top of their architecture, there is nothing stopping them from directly incorporating it into their products.

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/leaked-google-memo-admits-defeat-by-open-source-ai/486290/

Thus, "open AI" is best understood as "as free product development" for large, well-capitalized AI companies, conducted by tinkerers who will not be able to escape these giants' proprietary compute silos and opaque training corpuses, and whose work product is guaranteed to be compatible with the giants' own systems.

The instrumental story about the virtues of "open" often invoke auditability: the fact that anyone can look at the source code makes it easier for bugs to be identified. But as open source projects have learned the hard way, the fact that anyone can audit your widely used, high-stakes code doesn't mean that anyone will.

The Heartbleed vulnerability in OpenSSL was a wake-up call for the open source movement – a bug that endangered every secure webserver connection in the world, which had hidden in plain sight for years. The result was an admirable and successful effort to build institutions whose job it is to actually make use of open source transparency to conduct regular, deep, systemic audits.

In other words, "open" is a necessary, but insufficient, precondition for auditing. But when the "open AI" movement touts its "safety" thanks to its "auditability," it fails to describe any steps it is taking to replicate these auditing institutions – how they'll be constituted, funded and directed. The story starts and ends with "transparency" and then makes the unjustifiable leap to "safety," without any intermediate steps about how the one will turn into the other.

It's a Magic Underpants Gnome story, in other words:

Step One: Transparency

Step Two: ??

Step Three: Safety

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ih_TQWqCA

Meanwhile, OpenAI itself has gone on record as objecting to "burdensome mechanisms like licenses or audits" as an impediment to "innovation" – all the while arguing that these "burdensome mechanisms" should be mandatory for rival offerings that are more advanced than its own. To call this a "transparent ruse" is to do violence to good, hardworking transparent ruses all the world over:

https://openai.com/blog/governance-of-superintelligence

Some "open AI" is much more open than the industry dominating offerings. There's EleutherAI, a donor-supported nonprofit whose model comes with documentation and code, licensed Apache 2.0. There are also some smaller academic offerings: Vicuna (UCSD/CMU/Berkeley); Koala (Berkeley) and Alpaca (Stanford).

These are indeed more open (though Alpaca – which ran on a laptop – had to be withdrawn because it "hallucinated" so profusely). But to the extent that the "open AI" movement invokes (or cares about) these projects, it is in order to brandish them before hostile policymakers and say, "Won't someone please think of the academics?" These are the poster children for proposals like exempting AI from antitrust enforcement, but they're not significant players in the "open AI" industry, nor are they likely to be for so long as the largest companies are running the show:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4493900

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/18/openwashing/#you-keep-using-that-word-i-do-not-think-it-means-what-you-think-it-means

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[blackstarlineage]

The Difference Between Cultural Identity and Class-Based Behaviour: A Garveyite Perspective on Black Consciousness, Liberation, and Self-Determination

From a Garveyite perspective, which prioritizes Pan-African unity, self-reliance, and the restoration of African/black consciousness, there is a crucial distinction between cultural identity and class-based behaviour that many Black people fail to recognize. This confusion has been intentionally manufactured through colonialism, white supremacy, and capitalist exploitation to keep Black people divided, assimilated, and disconnected from their true heritage.

At its core:

Cultural identity is the collective historical, linguistic, spiritual, and ancestral continuity of a people.

Class-based behaviour is a social construct based on material wealth, economic status, and Western-defined respectability.

This analysis will examine:

Defining Cultural Identity vs. Class-Based Behaviour.

How Colonialism and White Supremacy Engineered This Confusion.

Examples of This Confusion in Black Communities.

Consequences of Mistaking Class for Culture.

The Garveyite Solution: Returning to Pan-African Identity and Self-Determination

1. Defining Cultural Identity vs. Class-Based Behavior

To understand why many Black people confuse the two, we must clearly define them.

Cultural Identity (Rooted in Ancestry & Collective Consciousness)

A people’s shared history, values, traditions, language, spiritual beliefs, and customs.

In the African diaspora, cultural identity is tied to Pan-Africanism, black nationalism, African spirituality, and indigenous traditions.

Remains constant regardless of economic status—it is not defined by wealth or material possessions.

Rooted in African/black philosophy, communal living, and intergenerational knowledge.

Example: Practising African naming traditions, speaking African languages, honouring ancestors, wearing traditional African clothing, and celebrating Black resistance movements are expressions of cultural identity.

Class-Based Behavior (Rooted in Social and Economic Status)

Dictated by income, education level, and Western ideals of success.

Tied to capitalism, assimilation, and Eurocentric concepts of "civilization."

Can change depending on wealth—a person’s social status can rise or fall, but their cultural identity remains.

Enforces Western respectability politics, which dictates how a Black person must dress, speak, and behave to be deemed "successful" in white society.

Example: Some Black elites believe that speaking “proper English,” wearing suits, or getting degrees from Western institutions makes them more cultured—when in reality, these are simply class markers imposed by European systems.

Garveyite Perspective: Black people must recognize that cultural identity is about ancestral roots, Pan-Africanism, and collective liberation—not white validation through social mobility.

2. How Colonialism and White Supremacy Engineered This Confusion

Black people did not naturally develop this confusion—it was imposed on them through slavery, colonial rule, and systemic oppression.

A) Cultural Erasure Under Slavery & Colonialism

African languages were banned, and European tongues were forced upon enslaved Africans.

Indigenous African religions were demonized, and Christianity was imposed to maintain control.

Western education was introduced as the only legitimate form of intelligence.

European clothing and social etiquette were enforced as signs of "civilization."

Tribal and ethnic divisions were created to prevent unity among African peoples.

Example: In the Caribbean, enslaved Africans were deliberately separated from those who spoke the same language to prevent rebellion. In America, Black people were taught that English-speaking, well-dressed house slaves were “superior” to field slaves—creating a false class hierarchy.

B) The Rise of Respectability Politics

After slavery, Black people were pressured to prove their worth to white society by adopting European norms of behavior:

Speaking English "properly" was seen as a sign of intelligence.

Dressing in Western attire (suits, ties, dresses) was deemed respectable.

Christianity was used to reinforce submission, obedience, and assimilation.

Black professionals distanced themselves from poor, working-class Black people.

Example: The Talented Tenth philosophy promoted by W.E.B. Du Bois suggested that a small, highly educated Black elite should lead the race—while Garveyism argued for mass empowerment, economic self-reliance, and a return to African traditions.

Garveyite Perspective: Any ideology that promotes integration into a white supremacist society instead of African self-determination is anti-Black.

3. Examples of This Confusion in Black Communities

Many Black people still mistake economic status and Western respectability for cultural identity. Here are some examples:

A) Language & Speech

Some Black people believe that African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), Patois, Creole, or African languages are “ghetto”, while standard English is “educated.”

In reality, African linguistic structures influence these languages, making them part of our cultural identity.

Example: Many Caribbean and African immigrants are conditioned to believe that abandoning their mother tongues and adopting British or American English is a sign of intelligence, when in fact, this is an example of colonial indoctrination.

B) Clothing & Grooming

Some Black people believe that wearing African/black clothing is “backwards” or “unprofessional”, while wearing a suit and tie makes one respectable.

But a suit and tie is a European standard of dress, not an African or black one.

Example: Black and African clothing that remains uninfluenced by European styles is the kente cloth of Ghana. Woven by the Akan people for centuries, kente is a traditionally handcrafted fabric made from silk and cotton, featuring intricate patterns that hold deep cultural and spiritual significance. It has been worn by Ghanaian royalty and remains a symbol of heritage, status, and pride. Unlike European textiles, kente's designs, colours, and weaving techniques are rooted entirely in African traditions, showcasing a purely indigenous fashion identity.

C) Education & Intelligence

Some believe that having a degree from a Western university makes someone more cultured.

But Western education often promotes anti-Black narratives and European supremacy.

Example: Many Black intellectuals look down on grassroots organizers and Pan-African movements, seeing themselves as superior due to their Western degrees.

Garveyite Perspective: True intelligence is not determined by a degree from Harvard or Oxford—it is measured by self-education, community impact, and Pan-African consciousness.

4. Consequences of Mistaking Class for Culture

This confusion has caused major harm within the Black community:

A) Classism & Division

Black elites often distance themselves from the working class.

Africans and Caribbeans sometimes look down on Black Americans, believing their struggles stem from a lack of "ambition" instead of systemic racism.

Example: African immigrants are often taught that Black Americans are "lazy," when in reality, Black Americans face systemic barriers that prevent economic mobility.

B) Cultural Assimilation & Loss of Identity

Black people abandon African languages, traditions, and values in favour of Western norms.

African spirituality is demonized, while Christianity and Islam remain dominant.

Example: The African American upper class in the 1900s married lighter-skinned partners to gain social status—showing that whiteness, not African identity, was their measure of success.

Garveyite Perspective: Liberation comes through Pan-African unity and cultural reclamation—not integration into white systems.

5. The Solution: Reclaiming a Pan-African Consciousness

To break free from this confusion, Black people must return to authentic Pan-African identity and self-determination.

A) Prioritize African-Centered Education

Learn about African history, languages, and traditions outside of Western institutions.

Stop equating European education with intelligence.

B) Define Success on Our Own Terms

Success is not white approval—it is economic independence, cultural pride, and collective self-reliance.

Stop chasing corporate jobs, luxury brands, and European validation.

Garveyite Perspective: Only through self-sufficiency, cultural pride, and Pan-African unity can Black people truly be free.

Final Thought

Black people must stop confusing class-based Western behaviours with true African/black cultural identity. Only by reclaiming Pan-African consciousness, rejecting respectability politics, and prioritizing self-determination can true liberation be achieved.

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